The present invention proposes a machine for harvesting tomatoes (a tomato harvester), in which there are provided devices for the automatic displacement of the containers for the harvested product.
More especially, the harvester according to the invention is provided with a conveyor, on which the containers are deposited in stacks of 4 or more each, and which carries the stacks to a position in correspondence with equipment located on the rear part of the machine, where there are present means that take up the containers, lift them so that they come in correspondence with the devices that discharge the harvested product and that, when these containers are filled, and put them down onto the ground in stacks of two containers.
In this way, the personnel are relieved from this heavy work, one person being sufficient who, with the help of a truck or fork-lift, loads the stacks of containers in the front part of the machine, while all of the successive maneuvers are performed completely automatically.
The past few years have seen a great spreading of tomato harvesting machines, capable of cutting the plants, of separating the fruit from the leaves and branches, and then of directing the tomatoes that have been separated from the rest toward a conveyor belt that in turn discharges them into the harvest containers. These machines provide for a support surface on which there are deposited containers, called "bins", that are taken up one by one by the worker, positioned under the discharge belt, and then deposited on the ground once they are full. This is an operation that proves especially tiring and that uses personnel in a non productive manner, since the operators spend the major part of their time waiting for the containers or bins to be filled, prior to discharging them to the ground.
The Italian Utility Model application No. PC94U000003 of the Applicant describes a tomato harvesting machine to which there is applied a pallet-removing device capable of receiving a couple of these containers to deposit them on the ground when actuated by the operator. This is a rather advantageous solution, that eliminates the most tiring part of the work, but that still requires, however, the intervention of at least one person.